Xue Chang's interest in spells had already been piqued when he witnessed the mysterious woman use a spell to intoxicate three people stealthily.
And as Yong Heng explained to him how truly powerful spells were, his desired reached a peak.
He would be lying if he said he didn't desire such a mysterious power for himself. But he didn't expect much out of Yong Heng's words.
This entity wasn't known for his charitable exploits after all.
Not to mention how difficult it must have been to even find spells to practice. Spells couldn't be practiced by anyone half heartedly like skills or techniques were.
No, you needed hard work and a spell that truly suited you to gain the most out of it.
Even the most talented individuals weren't always assured to master a single spell in their lifetime.
And how difficult it must have been to find a spell that could be used by someone who couldn't use spiritual force.
When Xue Chang thought of it subjectively, he thought it would be impossible to obtain a spell for himself.
Yet here he was sitting before Tian Hai and Tian Kai. Trying to cultivate his very first spell.
————A few hours ago
Yong Heng, "Yes, spells are difficult to find especially for someone with a unique constitution such as yourself. But I recently obtained the perfect spell for you. 'Thousand Arm Asura'. The power to steal the strength of an asura and use it for yourself!"
Yong Heng had briefly explained the spell to him before suddenly shooting a burst of information into his mind.
An Asura was, as Yong Heng described them, a being of incomparable strength.
Asuras were different from cultivators. They were a tribe of space gods who roamed the stars in the early days of the universe's beginning.
Their power was so grand that a single swipe of their arms could tear a hole in space that they'd use to travel around throughout the stars.
Back then beings with enough power to create and destroy entire worlds existed everywhere. Yong Heng said that the aeon was a much more proactive force back then, but suddenly got silent several millenniums ago.
And along with it, those powerful tribes disappeared as well.
"That time was a time of chaos. No one knew what happened or why it happened. But suddenly every living creature was shut off from the aeons, which was a driving force of progress for everyone back then."
When Yong Heng reached this point, Xue Chang furrowed his brow in confusion.
"I don't get it, if we were really sealed away from this 'aeon' then wouldn't powerful cultivators who exist even now not be here?"
A hoarse laughter escaped from Yong Heng's mouth as he said, "How powerful is powerful? Let me tell you Xue Chang, no one of today can even hope to compare to the level of power that existed back then. I'd dare to say that the strongest person on your planet cannot even compare to the pinky finger of anybody from the Asura tribe. But you are right. For a period of time, the living creatures of the universe went without a method to strengthen themselves."
Yong Heng's eyes glazed over as he told his story, "It was hell. Humanity was on the brink of destruction at that time because those with superior physical prowess, such as wild beasts and monsters, held advantage over those who had lost their powers. It wasn't until years later that people realized that while the aeon's guidance had disappeared from the span, the source of power it used still remained. This began the age of cultivation, where methods to absorb and use 'spiritual force' began appearing left and right in order to compensate for the aeon's loss."
The words coming from inside his head made Xue Chang shudder. It was bad enough with him being unable to cultivate, but he couldn't imagine what it must have been like for so many people to have such incredible strength then just lose it all.
Without even an explanation.
What was also weird was how Yong Heng described the situation. He made it sound like the aeon was a person that had left. But how could the aeon be a person? And if it was really sealed away from them, how could he peek into it like he was doing now?
Before he could voice his concerns, Yong Heng quickly changed the topic from legends of the past to spells in the present.
"Well I'm not sure about the exact details but supposedly 'Thousand Armed Asura' allows the user to connect with the Asura tribe. This spell allows you to take on the power of a single Asura. But it isn't easy to do such a thing. Because your human constitution is so different than those beings of the past, if you were to just take it all in then you'd probably explode. So the power has been split into two sections."
Yong Heng said the strength of even an infant Asura was too much for Xue Chang to handle. So it had been split into two sections each containing five hundred parts, which was where the thousand part came from.
The active part of the spell directly granted him Asuran abilities, completely unique to their race. But to master these abilities was incredibly difficult and wasn't something he could do in a short period of time.
But the passive section was much more interesting to Xue Chang. For every "arm" of the passive section Xue Chang mastered, he would directly receive a more perfect impenetrable body.
That didn't sound that interesting for a guy who could heal virtually any injury, but it wasn't like it didn't hurt when he got injured.
Plus who knew if there was a limit to his regeneration like back when he fell into the pool of lava. It was better if he could increase his defense as much as possible, just in case of emergencies.
And that was how he ended up in his current predicament. Sitting before Tian Hai and Tian Kai with his brow tightly furrowed.
Yong Heng had said that the spell connected him to the Asura tribe, but how was he supposed to connect himself with a group that no longer existed?
He had brought this question up to his friends and because of that they had been sitting there for hours trying to figure out the solution. The suggestion that maybe it was a figurative thing had once come from Tian Hai, but when he tried practicing the spell with this thought in mind he felt nothing.
It was like he was trying to reach out for a source of light but could only flail around in the darkness not knowing where he had to go to even start searching.
"Well I mean it's not like the tribe is really extinct right? If what you told us is true, then these 'Asuras' couldn't have just died out that easily?"
"That's what I thought too, but even if they didn't die out how do I connect myself to them? It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, except I don't even know if the needle is really there or not."
The three friends sighed to themselves in exasperation.
Just then, Lou Lan suddenly entered into the room, "Hmm? What has you guys so gloomy?"
Tian Hai looked over at his brother, who explained the gist of what was troubling them. He didn't reveal anything but worded his way around it. But even so he described it pretty well, or at least enough for Lou Lan to understand the whole situation.
"Well isn't the answer to this question obvious?"
Lou Lan looked at the three people in front of him with a strange gaze. Sometimes he couldn't figure out if they were genius monsters or idiots.
"It's just like fishing. You don't know if there are any fish there but you still cast your line in. If a fish is there, it'll bite, and if it isn't then it won't. It's just a matter of patience. It's not a question of 'is it?' Or 'isn't it?' but a question of how patient can you be?"
The idea itself was simple to understand but difficult to do. After all, with how rapidly life was changing, who could seriously pause and wait for an unknown thing to come meet you.
It really was more of a test of wills over anything. Just waiting there endlessly hoping for something to happen would put a lot of mental strain in most people.
But still, there was some hope.
Xue Chang's eyes sparkled with understanding as he stood up in laughter.
Hopping over to Lou Lan from across the room, he gave him a hard pat on the back, almost causing his knees to buckle.
"Fishing huh? Fishing! Haha! This is why we allow you to stay here despite your terrible hygiene-
"My hygiene isn't that bad"
-we will talk about this later. More importantly, I have a good idea on what I got to do now!"
Xue Chang was extremely excited. It was finally time for him to cultivate the first part of 'Thousand Armed Asura'!